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Crews Make Additional Progress on Containment, Respond to New Starts

Cottonwood Ridge, Snake Ridge, Spoon and New Start Fires – August 2, 2023, Daily Update

Spoon Fire Quick Facts
Acres: 4,560 acres
Cause: Lightning
Containment: 25%
Start Date: July 24, 2023
Location: 2.5 miles east of Highway 60 between Globe and Show Low, AZ. 11 miles southwest of Cedar Creek
Fuels: Piñyon- Juniper, Manzanita, Grass, Cedar

Total personnel for all incidents: 418

Monday’s rainfall helped the crews with gaining containment of the fires, but the accompanying thunderstorms resulted in nine additional new fire starts on Fort Apache. Five of the new fires are currently being managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Southwest Area Incident Management Team 5 (SWA IMT 5) is assisting with the remaining four.

The new starts include a two-acre fire southwest of the Snake Ridge Fire. A dozer in the area quickly constructed fireline around the entire perimeter, while air resources dropped buckets of water on heat sources. A separate new start was contained. Smoke was spotted about four miles north of the incident command post along highway 60 and crews responded.

With the dry fuels, higher temperatures and low relative humidity forecasted in the coming days, we are expecting possible new starts and have firefighters ready for initial attack response.

Spoon Fire Update: Fire crews detected minimum heat along the containment line of the fire, allowing them to increase containment on a small area of the fire along the hook on the southwest side of the fire. A dozer line was constructed above the northeast side of the fire, should it move to the north.

Weather: Warmer and drier weather is expected on Wednesday, with only isolated thunderstorms and showers.

Evacuations: None.
Residents and visitors should take time to become familiar with the Ready, Set, Go evacuation model. Sign up for the Navajo County Alert System at https://tinyurl.com/y4vwrasw.

Smoke: Smoke may still be visible as pockets of heat continue to smolder. For information on smoke and air quality, visit https://www.airnow.gov.

Closures: Highway 60 remains open. The southwest portion of Fort Apache is closed, including all Salt River sites within the closure area.

Fire Restrictions: There are several fire restrictions in place depending on location.

• Fort Apache Agency: Stage 2 Fire Restrictions
  • No campfire, fireworks, outdoor smoking, debris burning or discharging of firearms. Power saws cannot be used between 10 am and 8 pm. All motorized travel is restricted to developed roads.
• Show Low, Navajo County and Apache Sitgreaves National Forests: Stage 1 Fire Restrictions
  • No campfires (except in developed recreation sites), no smoking outdoors, no welding, no fireworks.